Hashem Abu Maria, 45, pictured with his daughter, was shot dead by Israeli forces in Beit Ummar after Friday prayersDefense for Children International-Palestine mourns the death of a staff member, Hashem Khader Abu Maria, 45, killed today by Israeli forces while peacefully participating in a solidarity march with Gaza. Israeli forces shot Hashem in the chest with live ammunition as he stood still at the demonstration in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza after Friday prayers in the West Bank town of Beit Ummar. Clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian youth erupted when the Israeli military attempted to disperse the crowd with lethal force. Hashem

was not participating in the violence when a bullet struck him from a distance of 100 meters (328 feet), witnesses told DCI-Palestine. Two other protesters were killed in the same march, and at least 10 sustained injuries.

“The DCI-Palestine family is shocked and devastated by the loss of our friend and colleague, Hashem,” said Rifat Kassis, executive director of DCI-Palestine. “Hashem considered defending children’s rights as his purpose in life, not simply as a job. That he has become the latest innocent civilian to lose his life at the hands of Israeli forces is a tragedy. We offer our utmost condolences to his family.”

Hashem served as the coordinator of DCI-Palestine’s community mobilization unit, promoting constructive child participation throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory. His most recent work focused on Palestinian teens monitoring and documenting child rights violations in Hebron.

He is survived by his wife Samira, his son Ayham, 11, and his two daughters, Siba, 6, and Majdal, 13.

Others have been killed and injured over the last 24 hours, as people across the West Bank marched to show their solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where over 800 civilians have died in the past three weeks.

In what has been called the ‘largest West Bank demonstration in decades,’ thousands of Palestinians marched from Ramallah toward Jerusalem on Thursday night. Clashes broke out at Qalandia checkpoint, which separates Ramallah and Jerusalem, with Israeli forces opening fire on demonstrators. Soldiers shot dead a 17-year-old and injured a further 287 Palestinians.

Palestinian children and civilians across the Occupied Palestinian Territory are frequently injured by the Israeli military's use of excessive force, including both crowd control weapons and live ammunition.

The Israeli military’s own regulations dictate that live ammunition must be used “only under circumstances of real mortal danger,” but the regulations are not enforced and frequently ignored by Israeli soldiers, according to research by DCI-Palestine and a recent report by B’Tselem, [PDF] an Israeli human rights group.

For DCI-Palestine staff members, the devastating loss of Hashem intensifies our efforts to challenge the impunity and injustice that allows Israeli forces to wield disproportionate and lethal force against Palestinian civilians.

International pressure on both sides to cease fire ramped up Friday after the alleged Israeli shelling of a UN facility sheltering displaced Gazans killed at least 15 civilians, drawing widespread international condemnation.

Israel's security cabinet was to meet Friday to discuss a truce proposal passed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by US Secretary of State John Kerry, Israeli media reported.

It proposes an initial week-long humanitarian ceasefire along with indirect talks between Hamas and Israel in Cairo.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu flew to Qatar on Friday to help efforts after Kerry reached out to Hamas allies Ankara and Doha to push for a ceasefire.

According to Western and Palestinian officials, once a humanitarian lull takes hold, delegations from Israel and Hamas will arrive in Cairo -- which has mediated past conflicts between the two -- for indirect talks that could lead to a lasting deal.

Hamas, however, has insisted that it will only accept a ceasefire that involves an end to an eight-year long blockade that has crippled the Gaza Strip's economy.

7-day humanitarian truce

Kerry has been joined in Cairo by UN chief Ban Ki-moon and British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond to push forward the plan, diplomats said.

Ban on Friday urged an immediate "humanitarian pause" in the fighting coinciding with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which begins on Monday or Tuesday, depending on the sighting of the new moon.

"On this, the last Friday of Ramadan, I call for an immediate, unconditional humanitarian pause in the fighting in Gaza and Israel. This pause would last through the Eid al-Fitr holiday period," Ban said in a statement released by his office.

Hamas' exiled Doha-based leader Khaled Meshaal, however, insisted in a Thursday interview with the BBC that any truce must include a guaranteed end to Israel's eight-year blockade of Gaza.

"We want a ceasefire as soon as possible, that's parallel with the lifting of the siege of Gaza," he said.

Israel braced meanwhile for West Bank and East Jerusalem unrest after Palestinian factions declared a "Day of Rage" and Israeli police restricted entry to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound to men aged 50 and above.

At least four Palestinians were killed on Friday afternoon, after one Palestinian was killed and 150 were injured in Thursday night clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank, Palestinian medics said.

An AFP correspondent said nearly 1,000 Palestinians were holding a protest in the southern West Bank city Hebron on Friday afternoon, with a similar demonstration taking place in nearby Halhul.

In Gaza, the death toll rose to 838 in 18 days of violence, with a five-year-old child among the latest deaths announced.

Walid Sa’id al-Harazin 5, Shot In The Head By Army Sniper The Palestinian Ministry of Health has reported that an Israeli army sniper shot and killed a Palestinian child, 5, in the neighborhood of Shuja’eyya, in Gaza City. Four more Palestinians killed in Gaza’s Central District.

Update 18:00:

An airstrike on a motorcycle in Khan Younis resulted in the deaths of two men: Osama Salim Shaheen, 27, Khan Younis. Hamada Suleiman Abu Younis, 25.

On Friday late afternoon, the bodies of two brothers killed in Khan Younis arrived at the Gaza European Hospital. They were identified as: Mohammad Kamel an-Nakal, 34, Khan Younis. Kamaal Kamel an-Nakal, 35, Khan Younis.

According to data by the Ministry of Health in Gaza, 26 Palestinians have been killed since dawn hours Friday, while 826 Palestinians, including entire families, have been killed and at least 5273 have been injured since July 8.

Wounded children in hospital after attack on UN SchoolUNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl issued a statement Friday condemning the Israeli attack on the previous day which killed 17 Palestinian civilians who had sought shelter in a UN school in Beit Hanoun.

The statement reads as follows:

The scenes of carnage and human suffering that we witnessed today at our elementary school in Beit Hanoun were so appalling and intolerable, that it is difficult to find the words to convey adequately my indignation. As has happened so many times in this pitiless conflict, civilians are paying the highest price of the current military escalation. I condemn this callous shelling and the extensive loss of life in the strongest possible terms and call for an immediate investigation to ensure that circumstances and responsibilities are comprehensively and irrefutably established.

At approximately 14:55 today, as hostilities were intensifying, UNRWA’s Beit Hanoun Elementary Co-Ed A and D school compound was struck by explosive projectiles, causing death and injuries to multiple displaced Palestinian civilians who had sought refuge in this UN installation. This school had been designated as an UNRWA Emergency Shelter.

The security situation in the Beit Hanoun area was deteriorating rapidly and over the course of the day UNRWA had been attempting to negotiate with the Israeli Defence Forces a pause in the fighting during which they would guarantee a safe corridor to relocate staff and any displaced persons who chose to evacuate to a more secure location. Approval for that never came to UNRWA. In addition, the school’s coordinates had been formally conveyed to the Israeli authorities on 12 occasions, most recently at 10:56 this morning.

These Palestinians, many of them women and children had come to this school for refuge believing that a UN installation would offer them a higher level of safety and security having been displaced from their homes as a result of the current fighting. That belief was based on the binding commitment of the international community and on the binding obligation of parties to the conflict under international law to respect the inviolability and sanctity of UN premises, and on the many years during which UNRWA has done its utmost to provide them protection.

This is the fourth time in the past four days that an UNRWA school has been struck by explosive projectiles. Today’s tragedy was yet another illustration that no one in Gaza is safe. I call once again on all parties to this conflict to recognize and respect the sanctity, neutrality and inviolability of UN premises. I further call for an immediate cease-fire to end the killing and maiming as well as the devastation and traumas that will mark the population for decades. Enough is enough.

Background Information

UNRWA is a United Nations agency established by the General Assembly in 1949 and is mandated to provide assistance and protection to a population of some 5 million registered Palestine refugees. Its mission is to help Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and the Gaza Strip to achieve their full potential in human development, pending a just solution to their plight. UNRWA’s services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, and microfinance.

Financial support to UNRWA has not kept pace with an increased demand for services caused by growing numbers of registered refugees, expanding need, and deepening poverty. As a result, the Agency's General Fund (GF), supporting UNRWA’s core activities and 97 per cent reliant on voluntary contributions, has begun each year with a large projected deficit. Currently the deficit stands at US$ 69 million.

The Israeli army said on Friday that one of its soldiers had been killed in Gaza earlier in the day, bringing the total number of soldiers dead in the fighting to at least 33 as the Palestinian death toll rose to 842.

The army identified the soldier as Yair Ashkenazy, 36, saying he was killed "earlier today during operational activity in the northern Gaza Strip."

Since the beginning of Israel's land invasion of Gaza, 33 Israeli and soldiers have been killed, according to the army.

Palestinian militant groups have announced that they have killed several more soldiers, claiming that the Israeli army has not admitted the deaths of a handful of its troops.

Meanwhile, at least 46 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip in Israeli shelling from air, land, and sea on Friday.

Medic Hamid al-Barai was killed in an airstrike on ambulance in Beit Hanoun.

Four Palestinians were killed in an airstrike on a motorbike and shelling in Khan Younis southern Gaza Strip on Friday afternoon.

Hamada Abu Yunis and Osama Shahim were killed in an airstrike on a motorbike in Khan Younis.

EU and US authorities had ordered all commercial flights suspended after a rocket struck near runways on Tuesday, briefly shutting Israeli air links to the outside world in what Hamas claimed as a "victory" in a deadly conflict now in its 18th day.

Additionally, the al-Qassam Brigades said they targeted Ashdod with five grad missiles, Tel Aviv with 5 rockets and an M75 missile, and Ashkelon with five grad missiles.

UNRWA schoolThe Israeli army fired missiles and shells into dozens of homes, residential buildings, medical facilities and other areas in different parts of the Gaza Strip, killing nearly sixteen Palestinians, and wounding dozens of residents.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that two children were killed after an Israeli shell struck their home in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. They have been identified as:

Two Palestinians were killed in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip after Israeli missiles struck their homes, in Khan Younis, and one woman died of earlier wounds. They have been identified as:

The Ministry of Health denounced the attack, and also denounced another attack targeting an ambulance driving from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis to the Gaza-European Hospital.

There were no patients in the ambulance at the time of the attack, while ambulance driver, and another medic, jumped out of the ambulance before the Israeli missile hit it.

The Ministry said Israeli attacks and bombardment of hospitals, medical centers, ambulances and medics, are an ongoing Israeli practice that violates International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention and all related treaties.

Sixteen Palestinians have been killed by Israeli missiles and shells Friday, while the number of Palestinian killed since the beginning of Israel’s latest war on Gaza, on July 8, is 815 Palestinians, and more than 5240 have been injured, the Ministry of Health said.

Live fire in Qalandia, 2 dead, over 100 injured Another massacre is currently underway in the Gaza Strip, where, according to Al Ray Palestinian Media Agency, relentless Israeli shelling and sniper fire are wreaking death and destruction on all that moves in the zone east of Khan Younis. At least 120 Palestinians have been injured, and 2 killed, in clashes which occurred in the occupied West Bank city of Qalandia, and are still ongoing.

Khuza’a, Al Fukhari, Abasan Alkabir, Abasan Al Sa’ir, Jarara, and Bani Suhela received no warning of the most recent Israeli attacks. Neither did these villages receive warning to evacuate before the bombardment began.

The Algerian Hospital in Abasan Alkabir has been evacuated, with only the emergency department operational.

Moreover, an unknown number of dead and injured remain behind, according to Al Ray, as ambulances are prevented access and indiscriminate shelling continues unabated; Israeli snipers inside houses are attacking anything that moves.

Homes are being destroyed over the heads of entire families. Tens of thousands have been displaced.

There is no safe sanctuary for residents, patients or health personnel alike and the Israeli military is refusing to provide humanitarian access to the dead and injured, in clear breach of international humanitarian law, committing war crimes with blatant impunity.

Chaos is continuing to engulf the occupied West Bank, where over 10,000 people marched from Ramallah to Qalandia today, in protest of the merciless attacks on Gazan civilians. Clashes erupted between demonstrators and Israeli forces in the city, where a military checkpoint and a section of the Apartheid Wall stands, on the way to Jerusalem.

At least 120 Palestinians have been injured during the confrontations, according to the Palestinian News Network. Clashes are still ongoing -- 60 involving live ammunition -- with more than 50 ambulances reported to be seen in the area.

Ongoing clashes have also been reported in Bethlehem, Al Arroub, Jerusalem, Hebron and several other Palestinian cities all over the West Bank.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza urges the international community demand the Israeli military to:

1. Immediately cease all attacks on civilian targets in Gaza; 2. Immediately cease all attacks on medical facilities and personnel in Gaza; 3. Immediately provide access to the dead and injured, as required by international humanitarian law.